I am about to head out to do a bit of holiday shopping this evening, which unfortunately means that I will be confronted with relentlessly loud music and overbearing crowds. And you know, as much as I enjoy this season of giving, I sometimes find all the bright lights and chaos unnerving. Just thinking about this sensory overload and potential unpleasantness was giving me a bit of a headache, when all of a sudden I remembered the great CD set I received as a holiday gift last year. Oh what relief. I am taking this with me in the car! The sounds of bird song, frogs, thunderstorms, crickets, wolves and more, (recorded by various naturalists), were collected by Delta Music and packaged as a set of 5 CDs. I loaded them onto my computer, and into my ipod, and then I listened to them all winter when I was writing or painting. I am so glad I remembered those CDs – what a pleasure soft, natural sounds will be when I exit noisy Target !

I am most familiar with the “Echoes of Nature” series, which I have pictured and linked here. But there are several other collections, including “Sounds of the Earth”. My favorite from this company is the collection “Morning Birds” pictured and linked below. All of these recordings are without human voice or music – just pure natural sounds…

Thinking about the bird song and natural sound sets reminded me of an interesting gift I gave to my dad last year. My father loves birds and gardening. I was excited when I found The Backyard Birdsong Guide books, pictured below, to help him learn to identify various birds by song as well as by visual cues. These books are very easy and fun to use. You simply dial in the corresponding number to the species on the page, and push a button to listen. My father loves these books, (he liked them so much that I picked up the bird-song calendar for him later).

Almost all gardeners are bird lovers, so these books and CDs make great holiday gifts. I should also mention that these audio field guide books are produced by Cornell Lab of Ornithology, so they are also fantastic teaching tools for nature lovers and gardeners of all ages. One of the keys to preserving and protecting nature is learning about it; something I feel very strongly about. But beyond the educational and relaxation value, I have to be honest – these books are also a good time. I won’t go into all of the kooky things I do with mine, (OK, so they involve the cat), but let’s just say they are an awful lot of fun over the long, long, winter…

These other non-bird centered CDs feature the sounds of the forest, (“American Wilds” has rain showers, frogs, crickets, wolves, cicadas and ambient forest sounds), frogs and thunderstorms. I noticed when I looked my titles up online, that many others get great reviews as well – but I have only heard the ones listed here. If you are curious, you can sample the sounds online through the links, and if you enjoy them, you can always download a few for yourself as a mid-winter pick-me-up when things get really cold and silent outside…

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